Sebastien Bourdais seals Champ Car title

Sebastien Bourdais of France won the Champ Car season title on Sunday with a flag-to-flag victory in the Mexican Grand Prix, frustrating Brazilian teammate Bruno Junqueira, who finished a close second.

09 November 2004

Bourdais reversed the outcome of the Australian race on the Gold Coast two weeks ago as he beat Junqueira by 4.5 seconds despite a slide on the 42nd lap that cut about 12 seconds off his lead.

Junqueira also had to settle for second place in the final standings for the third consecutive year. Both drive for the team owned by actor Paul Newman and Carl Haas. Rookie of the year A.J. Allmendinger of the US finished third, just ahead of another first-year driver, Justin Wilson of Britain.

Patrick Carpenter held off his Forsythe teammate Paul Tracy for third in the season's standings. He finished sixth on Sunday, while the trouble-plagued Canadian Tracy was 10th.

Bourdais steadily built a lead of almost 18 seconds over Junqueira through the first 41 laps on the 4.484-kilometre road course.

But he put a wheel on to the grass and spun just before the track cuts through a baseball stadium. It cut his lead over his team-mate to five seconds, with Allmendinger about eight seconds back.

Defending champion Tracy was stung by a tough start after setting out from the third row. A bump from another car pushed him on to the grass coming out of the first turn. Two laps later, he scraped against Roberto Gonzalez. Also frustrated were Mexican drivers, who have yet to win a Champ Car race in their home country.

The top finisher among the four was Mario Dominguez of the Herdez team, who finished eighth - a result good enough to give him fifth place in the season's standings. - AP

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